Archive for the ‘furniture’ Category

Preview

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

At this point I was hoping to be like, Hey! Check out all my stuff posted on eBay for pre-sale leading up to the big SALE! Look at all this previewed awesome furniture and other crap! Look at all that I have accomplished!

Well…that didn’t happen. Whoops.

But, I did build a little studio space (on my ghetto porch) so that I can take photos. Because why do something the easy way, when you can get all crazy and nit-picky and do it the super maniacal extreme way. I’ve been hunting for a cheap solution for this weird photo dilemma, which is that basically I need a designated area to take nice/clear/pretty photos.

Problems?

+ The house is jam packed, hoarder style.
+ There are no free walls with a corner and good light inside.
+ It is SO hard to move big furniture in and out of the tiny exterior doors.
+ The garage? HA! Where do you think all this extra stuff lives?
+ I plan on needing a nice little photo space for some time – but I want the inside of the house to stay a house.

The solution was to build these super cheap temporary walls on the back porch. Trust when I say that they are so ‘effing ghetto. Four pieces of 1/4″ drywall, six 2×4′s and some electrical tape.

Yeah. That’s right – they are literally taped and clamped together – but still freestanding so that eventually they can be moved off the porch and into the garage (if they don’t crumble out of sheer embarrassment).

During “construction” I may have broken our poor Fado porch light. Maybe I also hurt myself. Maybe I also designed them to be so cheap that I created a bunch of stupid extra work. Next time, maybe I’ll fork over a few extra dollars to build some complete frames instead of the “budget” version I thought was so brilliant (it wasn’t).

But at least. At the very least. I don’t have to look at the ugly nailed shut door and weird ghetto porch pipes anymore. This sort of confirms an idea I’ve been kicking around about doing some sort of wood wall treatment out here…

Guess what. These sloppy faux walls totally work!

Not just work, but are A-to the-MAZING.

It’s so nice and so easy to move furniture in there and not screw up my floors or bang the door frame or have the dogs jumping into every photo. I love it. LOVE LOVE. The light is great and it’s this little fun fake room I can style up however I please.

I’ve also been sorting through piles of vintage stuff fixing it up and deciding what stays and what goes. Lots of these tasty pieces never really got mentioned on the old bloggity…

Like this gorgeous Danish surfboard style rosewood coffee table. It. Is. YUMMY. Mmmmhmmmm.

Now that I built my little photo area, I’m working on getting this sale thing up and running. It’s madness, though. Total madness around here. I mean, seriously, I’m one lady and there are piles of stuff. PILES.

More previews & info soon. Better be. May 15th is coming fast.

FILED UNDER: DIY, furniture, sale

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Brown Town

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Maybe it’s been made obvious over these past few years, but I have a lil’ bit of a sofa problem. Just a wee little problem. You know, just a small, minuscule, tiny, insignificant issue with obtaining sofas. No big thang. No real worries. No extremism. Nothing to call a specialist about. No deep rooted psychological pathologies.

Shut up.

I’m blaming The Boy…kind of. He and his less than design enthused friends have complained over and over that the sofas I buy are too low or too hard or too uncomfortable or too mid century or too whatever. In the comfy television watching den this debate has raged on and on while they sipped crappy beers and watched Nascar. Yes – NASCAR. In my home. The nerve.

Sharing my long unrequited love for chesterfields – Summer found the perfect little petite sofa and begrudgingly emailed it to me. I thought nothing could be more Boy pleasing than a deeply comfy and broken-in vintage chesterfield to sit on while watching manly things on the tube. He has yet to really wax lovingly about my thoughtful gift, but has taken the time to remark, “No more goddamn sofas. Aren’t you tired of moving sofas?”. NEVER.

The den is shifting into all brown town and getting a bit more masculine than I’d like. Now I just need some new art and new pillows and a new shelving unit and a new light and a new chair. Just a whole new room, no biggie.

Bowie likes it a whole bunch and he’s adorable, so therefore by the bylaws of adorable transference the sofa is now legally adorable. I called Iggy into the room to take some photos and add to the adorableness quotient, but once he rounded the corner and saw the camera and Bowie, he briefly sized up the situation and then turned heel and hopped back into bed to continue his nap. Iggy ain’t having none of our crap anymore. I don’t know how any of them put up with me.

FILED UNDER: craigslist, den, furniture, vintage

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Rose Bowl Flea

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

On Sunday I headed out to Los Angeles to hit up the Rose Bowl Flea Market. It was a mash up of a day consisting of getting into girl reporter mode for a freelance gig, enjoying the company of super person and super deal hunter Sharon Montrose, as well as dropping off a very special piece of furniture (more on that later).

It was packed.

And hot.

And PACKED.

These might be my two favorite signs of the day. The latter possessing that special mix of condescending misogyny and humor that makes me giggle and then depressed.

I hate that I am currently searching (pretty hardcore) for a pair of mounted moose antlers to hang above the fireplace. I’ve been obsessing about them since seeing a great pair a the Long Beach Flea. I know, I sicken myself. These were the only pair I saw and they were far from ideal.

Super obsessing over these Mies Van Der Rohe for Stendig dining chairs. Obsessed to the max. I tongue kiss them them. Also, obsessed with vintage camera lenses. This is like a table full of heaven.

OK, maybe these were my favorite signs of the day. This ugly table is from “Hollywood!”

Wow. I’m not really sure who is impressed with that proclamation seeing that we are in Pasadena and most of Hollywood proper is a dump. It’s so vague, yet so enthusiastic, yet in such bad taste.

Speaking of, I was very enthusiastic about this painting since it pretty much resembles The Boy with his shirt off. The price (on a sticky note – $150) discretely hid his junk. Considering how wacky and out of proportion the rest of his anatomy was, it probably is best that there was a tidbit of mystery left to the imagination.

At the time I was not so into this giant lucite bench/sofa…but now…I kind of can’t get it out of my head. I have the perfect spot for it in the living room.

Loved this little table base and imagined it with a giant slab of round marble perched on top. The  best part was the gentle curve of the legs, it has that sort of slightly Danish mixed with a drop of Moroccan vibe I can slide right into. Tasty.

Also, there was something about these weirdo chairs that I dug. They were so strange and awkward, but I feel like the house they would fit into would be full of cocktails and caftans and key parties. I could dig it.

The Rose Bowl was a bit of a bust on the buying front. I showed tons of restraint and bought nothing. Shocker, right? I think I was so consumed with working and thoughts of the giant vintage explosion + lack of space at home that I couldn’t imagine adding one more thing to the pile. There is only so much hoarding I can do and keep my dignity – until I lost it all and immediately came home and bought stuff off Craigslist. Maybe the Rose Bowl just wasn’t that great this weekend.

Did you guys go? What did you think about the selection?

FILED UNDER: flea market, furniture, travel

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